Friday, December 7, 2012

Middletown, CT -(Ammoland.com)- On November the 14th, the US Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) has officially granted import permission and sale in the United States of America of the AF2011-A1 Second Century double barrel pistol, with a total score of 120 Points, according to Form 4590. Arsenal Firearms Group proudly announces the official distribution to America of the whole line of double barrel firearms and dedicated accessories starting on January the 1st 2013, through the appointed US Importer of Record, Apex International LLC of Middletown, CT and accordingto a “Dealer Direct Distribution”.

The AF2011-A1 Second Century double barrel pistol comes actually as the very first
industrial double barrel semiautomatic pistol of all times. Read more.

The magazine holds 16 rounds, not at all an exceptional number by today's standards except for .45-caliber ACP. Wait, that's what this is. Add the two that can be carried in the chamber and you have 18 rounds of the hardest-hitting semiauto ammo in the world. This is very significant hand-held firepower.

The double barrel design is of no utility itself except that it permits that much ammo to be magazined so compactly. .45 rounds are big; if they were single-stacked the magazine would be twice as long and very ungainly. That's why the typical .45 pistol typically carries only six or seven rounds plus the chambered one.

The importer claims that all 18 rounds can be fired in three seconds. Good luck with that! That's a cyclic rate of 540 rounds per minute, nearly machine-gun rate of fire. Even if you could empty it that quick (and you probably could with practice), hitting all 18 at a specific point of aim would be highly problematic.

No word on price. You can bet it will be costly (I'm betting about 2 large). And most of us will see it on the silver screen in the hands of a bad guy before we see it in person in a shop.

Update: This video explains the rate of fire - it shoots both barrels at the same time. Nine trigger pulls, 18 rounds fired. That halves the cyclic rate of fire to 270 while maintaining the absolute rate of 540. Not sure I see the point, actually.

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